"SEEING THE UNSEEN"
Third Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 5)
June 10, 2018
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
We look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:18 (ESV)
From time to time we all catch ourselves engaging in anticipation--daydreaming about pleasant things yet to come. More than a generation ago Carly Simon sang: "We can never know about the things to come but we think about them anyway." From the young child anticipating the joy of Christmas to the terminally ill person longing for the respite of death, our lives are loaded with one anticipation after another. As a matter of fact, our anticipation and our daydreaming of future joys sometimes rob us of a full appreciation of many present joys--joys that are ours right here and now. It's fine to have some thoughts of future joy, just so long as our anticipation doesn't prevent us from living in the present.
But there is an anticipation of future joy that is so good that it ought to take priority even over the present. I'm speaking of the Christian's anticipation of heaven, which our Savior has promised to share with us as a free gift of His grace. The tension between the "now" and the "not yet" is a familiar experience for the people of God. God's ancient people, the Jews, groaned in oppression in Egypt, but even in their groaning they had the hope of deliverance from slavery to the freedom of their own land. Jewish pilgrims in Jesus' day annually made their way through towns full of injustice in order to get to the temple in Jerusalem to worship their God and express their hope that He would soon send their Deliverer--the Messiah. The early Christians marched through hostility and persecution to proclaim the Gospel of Christ with their eyes fixed on His future glory. Black American Christians living in slavery in this country sang in their misery: "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen," and yet in hope they also sang: "Goin' to Walk All Over God's Heaven." Even today we as Christians suffer because of our faith. No, we are not being arrested or put to death (at least not yet), but if we are faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ, we will miss out on many of the world's pleasures, not because they are necessarily wrong, but because Jesus is more important to us and therefore requires our complete attention. In order that we might be strengthened as we endure the present with the hope of the future, let's consider this morning what the apostle Paul says to us about this struggle. He speaks of it in terms of "the things that are seen" and "the things that are unseen."
Paul, writing by the Spirit's direction, defines "the things that are seen" as things that are "transient." When you really stop to think about it, everything that you can see is temporary. The most beautiful flower eventually withers and falls to the ground. The sun, even on the brightest of days, still disappears over the horizon when evening comes. The strongest and healthiest person in the world lies dead sooner or later. The "transient" nature of all that is seen is so well understood that we make our plans and live our lives according to it (or at least we think we do). None of us makes plans for a century into the future, because we assume that we won't be around then. We purchase our automobiles and our homes and everything else with an eye for how long it is likely to last or how long we are likely to have need of these things.
A proper understanding of this should instill within our hearts and minds a realization that it is futile to place any confidence in "things that are seen." But we still say and do many things that indicate that there is something lacking in our understanding. We spend substantial amounts of money insuring our lives, but are our lives really insured? I don't know anyone who has avoided death by insuring his life. We frequently repeat the old saying: "You can't take it with you"--and that is indeed true. You can't. I don't know about you, but I've never seen a hearse pulling a U-Haul trailer. And yet we treat our material possessions with a degree of importance that is excessive when you consider the "transient" nature of both our possessions and our earthly lives. We act as if these material, visible things are going to make everything alright for us. When you go shopping for a new car, salespeople will talk about some of these automobiles as if they had the capacity to totally change your life and give you a sense of happiness and fulfillment that you have never known before. That's a bunch of nonsense--a car can't do all of that. It's not supposed to change your life. It's not supposed to raise you to new levels of happiness and fulfillment. All it's supposed to do is provide you with transportation, and if you're looking for something more than that in a car (or in any other material thing, for that matter), you are placing far too much confidence in "the things that are seen."
Compare the hopelessness and futility of having faith in "the things that are seen" with the other option--"the things that are unseen"--the things that Paul describes as "eternal." He is speaking here not about anything and everything that cannot be seen. That would be utterly ridiculous. Hatred is unseen. So is jealousy and so is prejudice. No, what the apostle is referring to here is spiritual things--the things of God. These are the things that are "eternal." These are the things that last forever. And of all spiritual things, the greatest by far is the Lord Jesus Christ--the forgiveness and salvation that He brings to all who will have it--to all who by faith in Him will make it their own.
These spiritual things--these "unseen" and "eternal" things--these are the things that we can count on. These are the things in which we can place our trust, knowing that if we do, we will not be disappointed. Christ alone is able to assure us of the things that we need and desire the most--the "unseen" things that are of far greater value than anything that this world has to offer: things like peace, love, joy, forgiveness, hope, and everlasting life. These are the things that we are to "look to," as the text tells us. Sure--if "we look to" these "unseen" things, we're going to miss out on a lot of "things that are seen." We must be aware of that from the very beginning. But what are we really missing? Quite a bit, according to the world's way of thinking. But in reality we are missing so little in comparison to all that we have to gain by fixing our eyes of faith on the Lord Jesus and the spiritual, "unseen," "eternal" blessings that He has purchased for us with His own blood.
The difference between "the things that are seen" and "the things that are unseen" is as clear and obvious as the difference between present conflict and future glory. The Church's life is changed. Its destiny is heaven. That is assured through God's grace and mercy, revealed in His Son. This is Good News! It is Good News that gives us hope--hope that endures despite all of the external evidence to the contrary. You see, our joy in "the things that are unseen" is much stronger than our misgivings about "the things that are seen." This is His gift of grace to us so that we, touched by His redeeming love in Christ, might never despair, but always take comfort in the hope of the Gospel, keeping our eyes of faith forever fixed on "the things that are not seen"--and especially on Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
May the Lord bless your hearing of His Word, using it to accomplish in you those things for which He gave it. May you be enriched and strengthened in faith that you may leave here today to go out into our world armed with the whole armor of God, prepared to be able ambassadors of your Savior Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.